It’s a development that may constitute the largest single private-sector investment in the province’s history. And it has the potential to reshape the identity of Saskatchewan’s capital city.
Bell Canada and the provincial government announced a memorandum of understanding Monday at an investment summit hosted by Prime Minister Mark Carney in Toronto. The agreement would expand the controversial AI data centre near Regina from the original, still unfinished, 300-megawatt facility to a data centre hub with a total capacity of 1.2 gigawatts – quadrupling in scale.
It would also see Regina become the home of Bell AI Fabric’s headquarters.
The original press releases made many bold claims, but were sparse on details.
A day later, Saskatchewan’s NDP Leader of the Official Opposition, Carla Beck, called for a moratorium on new AI data centres until the province could provide more details.
Through conversations with three experts, Bell Canada and careful inspection of press releases, Global News seeks to bring you answers to the questions you may have.
Anne Pasek is the Canada Research Chair for Media, Culture and the Environment.
Simon Enoch is a senior researcher with the Canadian Centre for Alternative Policies and has been studying the rise of data centre backlash across North America.
Brett Dolter is an associate professor in the Faculty of Economics at the University of Regina with a focus on energy policy.
The answers provided by Bell came from its media relations department, or are quoted directly from its press release.
Global News has also quoted the Government of Saskatchewan press release, when relevant, for added context.
1: Where will this expansion be located?
Bell: It would not be possible to locate the full additional capacity within the current site footprint, given the setbacks and supporting power generation infrastructure required, so additional land will need to be purchased. Any future decision involving land acquisition, site selection or development will be made in close partnership with the local community, municipal council and provincial partners, with local input central to the process and subject to all applicable approvals. No site decisions have been made. Further details will be shared as customer commitments are secured and development plans advance.
2: How will the additional 900 MW of required power be produced?
Bell press release: The additional capacity would come from partner-developed power generation from natural gas.
Bell: Consistent with Saskatchewan’s Data Centre Framework and its bring-your-own-power principle, the additional capacity will be supported by dedicated natural-gas generation located off the existing site, so it does not rely on Saskatchewan’s provincial electricity grid for load supply. Bell is working to identify an experienced third-party operating partner that will be responsible for the generation infrastructure.
Brett Dolter: It’s interesting when Bell has the choice of building their own generation, they’re looking at gas. Hopefully they’re also thinking about renewables because if you can integrate renewables with the gas, then you don’t have to run the gas plant as much and you’re not going to be polluting as much. Because at the same time as these new investments are expanding the grid, in Canada as a whole and Saskatchewan, the goal is to clean up our electricity system and get to zero emissions by 2050. So, 900 megawatts of gas, maybe that is right now the cheapest option, but let’s hopefully see it paired with wind and solar so we can actually bring down the pollution from that gas plant.
Simon Enoch: It looks like it’s been confirmed that this will be natural gas generation. Bell is looking for a third party provider. They’re working with TransGas and SaskPower to facilitate this. But, it will require a dedicated pipeline of natural gas. This would be the largest natural gas generating plant in Saskatchewan by a country mile. Currently, it’s the Queen Elizabeth power station in Saskatoon at 634 megawatts. This would be almost 300 megawatts more. So I think there’s a lot of questions for nearby residents who might not have signed up to live next to potentially the largest natural gas generating power plant in the province.
Anne Pasek: The part that stands out for me the most is the size of the gas plant that’s being plugged into this. The province has decided they want to prioritize clients that can bring their own power, that can build their own facilities to prevent grid operators from needing to shoulder all this burden, and that makes economic sense for ratepayers. But it’s really horrible math for the climate, right? Like we’re building a new city’s worth of emissions here. And that is glossed over, I think, in a lot of the discussion from the province. We could require renewable energy. It’s totally doable to go there in terms of the policy design. Australia, for example, nationally is requiring new data centres to have renewable power supply, some percentage that I think is going to be an escalating number over time. So the gas versus renewables issue is a choice the province is making and one that I think is fair for us to question.
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3: Will the Bell AI Fabric Headquarters be located in Regina, or on-site with the Data Centres?
Bell: Bell plans to establish the Bell AI Fabric head office in Regina, reflecting the important role the city will play in the AI hub we are building in Saskatchewan. We look forward to sharing more details as plans advance.
4: What about water consumption?
Bell press release: Consistent with all Bell AI Fabric projects, the proposed facilities will use closed-loop cooling technology that requires no municipal water.
Bell: The sealed, closed-loop cooling system is filled at commissioning with a technical cooling fluid — a mixture of ultra-pure water, glycol and corrosion inhibitors — which then recirculates continuously to move heat away from the equipment. It is designed to operate continuously for more than 10 years without requiring the fluid to be changed, topped up or discharged during normal operation. When the fluid eventually requires replacement, it will be collected and transported offsite to an appropriate recycling facility for proper processing—not discharged into the municipal wastewater system. The system does not draw on municipal water for ongoing cooling operations.
Anne Pasek: So there’s a couple of different ways that systems can run in a closed loop. Some involve using water, water that is heavily treated with biocides and antifreeze agents. That water is going to have a lifespan of use that won’t be infinite. It will eventually need to be discharged. That’s called backflow or the effluent of the system. That will need to be trucked usually off-site for water treatment. And we would definitely want there to be comprehensive environmental assessments to ensure that those chemicals don’t get released into the wild.
5: What about customers?
Bell: We are seeing strong demand for Canadian AI infrastructure and are in advanced discussions with potential customers for the additional capacity. We will share further details once commercial arrangements are concluded.
6: Is the project going forward contingent on finding more customers for the additional 900 MW of compute?
Bell: Yes. Development will proceed in phases and remain tied to customer demand, commercial agreements and the necessary approvals. This approach allows Bell to invest as demand materializes while avoiding the build-out of capacity ahead of confirmed need.
Simon Enoch: As Bell admits, this is a phased-in approach. They don’t promise that they will even get to 1.2 gigawatts. So all of these investments may never come to fruition. The AI bubble may pop tomorrow and we may never see any of these promised additions.
Anne Pasek: I think quite a few of us in research are saying that this is an economic bubble, that the investment in the sector is certainly not matched with revenues these companies are bringing in, and that there is something of a big gamble here that, you know, if you build it, they will come. But that is by no means a guarantee. And, you know, as the scale goes up and up, what happens when your bed gets cold? So the long-term financial health, I think, is an important consideration for what kind of projects we want to invite into our communities on what terms. And I would really, really hope that people who are signing agreements with Bell and with its tertiary partners, that there are guarantees in there to ensure that like the community doesn’t get left like holding the bag if the bubble pops, if the money goes away.
7: What about jobs?
Bell press release: At full buildout, total capital investment associated with this project, including data centre infrastructure, tenant compute and related power generation could exceed $50 billion, while supporting 800 to 1,200 construction, engineering and technical jobs, and creating up to 600 permanent operations and management roles. As many as 3,000 additional offsite and community jobs could result from a large data centre deployment of this nature based on precedents in other markets.
Simon Enoch: I do note that they had to sort of combine both the jobs that will come with the power plant and the jobs with the data centre to get to their 600 number. I think for the data centre alone, if you sort of look at equivalent size facilities, maybe 220 to 250 full-time equivalent employees and perhaps some contracted staff. But once again, for the amount of power that this facility is consuming, just think about something like the Janssen Mine, which consumes about a tenth of the power – maybe close to 100 megawatts, right? That has almost 800 permanent full-time employees and about 5,000 temporary construction workers. So you know, just on a direct comparison of a megawatt-to-job ratio, something like a mine is exponentially more beneficial to a community. Which, you know, the premier actually stated, if we all remember. He said he’d take a mine over a data centre any day. And certainly from a jobs perspective, I would agree with the premier.
8: What about community engagement?
Bell: Any future decision regarding site selection or development will be made in close partnership with the local community, municipal council and provincial partners, with local input central to the process and subject to all necessary approvals.
Simon Enoch: I think that there’s a not-insignificant amount of the public that really believed that the original process was rushed, lacked transparency, didn’t really give the chance for the public to have an authentic voice and consultation on this. So this announcement that they’re expanding it, I think, will just deepen that cynicism of the public. So the real question is, will they provide another avenue for public consultation for regulatory oversight? So people will feel like their voices can be heard on this, or is this a done deal? I think the public has a right to be justifiably skeptical of the way the government has run the process on this.
Anne Pasek: I think it would be appropriate to, as many cities are doing, implement an interim control bylaw or a moratorium just to give people an opportunity to review, how does zoning work here? Do we have an ironclad guarantee that public health noise nuisance complaints aren’t going to rebound for a project of this scale? There are dangers to rushing ahead.
9: What about environmental assessments?
Bell press release: Development would proceed in phases as customer commitments are secured and subject to commercial agreements, permits, approvals, and any relevant environmental assessments.
Government of Saskatchewan press release: If the project meets the threshold under Saskatchewan’s Environmental Assessment Act, it will go through the required assessment process.
Simon Enoch: On the original project when it was 300 megawatts, the environmental assessment that wasn’t done. Will that have to be redone given the expansion here? Or does the government consider the approval process already completed? I think there’s a lot of questions.
Anne Pasek: So far, the government’s approach to this seems to be to let that be decided by local bylaws, right, and the presumption is that building this kind of facility is the same as building any other kind of a facility, and the laws we have on the books are adequate to manage that. But, this expansion represents a real intensification of the scale of infrastructure that comes with commensurately large economic numbers, but it also comes with commensurately large environmental impacts. Things like noise. Things like how this is going to affect the hardscape or water implications on the site. Things like whether and how toxic chemicals are going to be stored on-site and how that’s going to be managed, diesel generators for backup and whether that will impact air pollution. How is that being monitored? I’d like to ask whether or not the overall climate impact of this facility has been considered in environmental assessments to date, or if it will be in the future. What does the Premier make of the fact that this facility is going to significantly put Saskatchewan behind in terms of meeting its climate commitments?
Question 10: Will this affect my power bill?
Government of Saskatchewan press release: Data centres do use a lot of electricity, which is why power planning is part of the work from the start. The project now includes a phased development of up to 900 MW of additional capacity through Saskatchewan’s Bring Your Own Power principle, creating a path to a 1.2 GW Canadian AI infrastructure hub in the province. Bell is responsible for bringing forward the power the expansion needs as it grows, and Saskatchewan families and businesses will not pay for that additional power.
Bell press release: The project aligns with the Government of Saskatchewan’s Data Centre Framework and reflects Bell’s commitments to Canadian control, data sovereignty, local jobs and investment, environmental stewardship and non-grid power. Together, these principles have created the conditions required for investment and development at this scale.
Brett Dolter: Moving from 300 megawatts to 1,200 megawatts, that’s a huge chunk of power. And if we think of the SaskPower system, the peak demand we’ve ever had in Saskatchewan was, back in 2021, it was 3,900 megawatts. And that was on a December night. It was cold, and so we had a lot of power demand, so 3,900 megawatts. If you stack another 1,200 megawatts on that, that’s a 30% increase in what we’d expect of our peak demand. So it’s a big increase in our peak demand. Also, that system is running all the time. SaskPower’s minimum load is more like 2,100 megawatts. And so you stack on another 1,200 megawatts on top of 2,100 megawatts, that’s a 57% increase in what our minimum would be. So we’re talking about a really big expansion of the electricity system. I think it’s really important how SaskPower deals with this new, very large customer. The rate review panel in their report was talking about creating a data centre rate class. And so we need to have a rate class just for data centres. And if they’re bringing their own power, I think that’s going to be a good thing for the rest of the province because anything new we’re building costs more than all the legacy assets, other legacy gas plants. So I think it’s wise to make sure that this stays in its own rate class and you don’t see a bit of a bleeding in of the impact of that new data centre on rates for other industrial customers. A 1,200 megawatt data centre is a huge increase in the amount of electricity generated and used in Saskatchewan. It’s important that it stays in its own rate class so it doesn’t have an effect of increasing the rates for everybody else in the province.
Bell’s press release includes the caveat that certain statements are based on current expectations and still depend on factors such as customer demand, agreements and regulatory approvals. THe company cautions those plans could change and the projected timelines, jobs and economic benefits are not guaranteed.
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